Two Batches Of Elderflower Cordial

About two weeks ago I made my first ever batch of elderflower cordial. Once we tried it I set about making another batch a few days later - it tastes so good!

No Elder flowers on our plot this year so we had to go to a friends house and pinch some of theirs!

I picked a bag full of elderflower heads, grated three lemons and then left the whole lot to infuse over night by pouring 2 litres of boiling water over it.

The next day I added the juice of the lemons and added a table spoon of citric acid and a kilo of sugar, I then heated this up in the saucepan until it boiled before adding it to some Kilner bottles that had been sterilised (and warmed) in the oven.

I also made some ice lollies out of the mixture which should be nice and refreshing on a summers day.

 I've read that this will only keep a couple of months but I doubt there's much chance of it lasting that long. I'd like to try and pasteurise some cordials in the future so we could keep them a lot longer without freezing them and maybe reduce the number of the ones that we buy. I thought this might last longer than that due to the sugar content. If I see a Berco boiler at a car boot sale it might be worth me trying it, I think you need to heat it at 70 degrees for a few minutes to kill all the bugs. 

Blackcurrent cordial next I think! Anyone else been making cordials?

Building In Extra Storage

The other weekend I had a bit of a frenzy on putting in shelves and extra storage. After being at home in the week full time, I could really see where we were lacking storage and where it might make life a little easier.

More storage in the airing cupboard - somewhere to keep all the towels. They all come out easily if I need access to the tank..

Not the prettiest shelf above the fridge but it doubles the storage for all our Tupperware and tins

A shelf across a window that we never use. A better use of the space we think!

Shelve above the door. A shelf that only I can reach! (Man that wall needs some more paint)!

Tins and jar storage (the bottom shelf was added recently the others added when we moved in)

We don't live in the biggest house, but I like to think we're making the most of the space we have. When we build the extension hopefully we'll be able to incorporate some clever use of space and storage for essential things like food and linen.  

Anyone else been adding storage in random places lately?

Blue Sausage Fruit Tree

James Wong has got a lot to answer for in our house at the moment. After reading his book I've been doing my research to try and buy a few things from it, so we've got a few things to eat that aren't "run of the mill".

 The Blue Sausage Fruit or Dead Mans Fingers seemed to fit the bill perfectly. They have edible fruit in the autumn that looks like a blue broad bean pod filled with edible flesh. I found a small plant on eBay quite cheap and order it.

It came from Jurassic Plants and was really well packaged with good instructions and even some plant food for the first six months. If I'd ordered it straight from their web site I would have gotten a free tree as well but never mind - there's always next time!

I potted the plant on into a much bigger pot to give it room to grow, the tree isn't huge but buying it small like this saves me some money as I'll just grow it on until it's big enough to be planted in the ground and not need too much attention. 

Only time will tell whether this tree is worth growing or not but I'm intrigued to say the least. If the fruit isn't tasty it still has attractive foliage and might make a nice tree in the garden.

Anyone else got any interesting and usual fruits I can look at growing over here in our climate (we get quite heavy frosts in the winter)?

Cheap Outdoor Fun For Kids - Blackboards

### This is a collaborative posts ###

With a tin of blackboard paint ordered off eBay and some ply offcuts left over from a few jobs, I decided to make some blackboards for the children to play with outside.

Playing with the blackboards

 I've been planning on doing this for some time but the other day I had a brainwave about doing a blackboard in the shape of a little girl. So on a sunny afternoon I set about making them.

Temporary Cold Frame For Cuttings

On Thursday I had a bit of a frenzy on taking some cuttings. Trying to increase my stocks of rosemary, sage, bay, blueberries, goji berries and a few others for free. 

Quick fix cold frame

I've no idea if they will all work or if it's the right time for all of them, bay for one I'd imagine would be better in the autumn but it's worth a shot as I'm doing others and had everything set up.

A gritty sandy mix for the cuttings (I mixed up an ericaious one for the blueberries)

Rosemary cutting with the bottom leaves stripped away

Once I'd finished with the cuttings I needed somewhere to keep them. Most books say a plastic bag over the top or a cold frame out of direct sunlight. I decided that a cold frame would be better so I found a few sheets of old corrugated perspex saved from a job and set about building a temporary one on our north facing patio.

All the cuttings under my temporary, quick fix cold frame.

This turned out to be a little bit simple, even for me. I stacked the quarry tiles that I've got saved for when we build the porch and then added one of the sheets on the top and front weighted down with a few more tiles.

Temporary cold frame

Hopefully this should work well, it's easy for me to water them and as it's by the house I should be more inclined to keep an eye on them. One day I'll get round to building some proper cold frames, with brick sides and glass tops, but that's some way off yet!

What else should I be taking cuttings of at the moment? Anyone else built a temporary cold frame like this?